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>>SUE: Where's Bob. I hate having to wait for others.
>>SUE: Hey you! Zap off. There is only space for two on this scene and I'm waiting for
a friend. >>ROG: I know, Bob sent me instead. He can't
make it today. >>SUE: Who or what are you, some sort of Robocop,
here to spy on me! >>ROG: Bob said you could be very difficult.
Actually I'm R 3 W 3, version 3 of Roger Wilco. Bob has programmed me to teach others about
Web 3 or the semantic web. >>SUE: Oh no, not more learning! I thought
I had finished now that my course is over. >>ROG: Well Sue, I am here to tell you otherwise.
>>SUE: Oh Well. If you must. Hope you don't mind but I'll call you Roger. Not that you
have real feelings. So Roger, what is this semantic web?
>>ROG: It's the intelligent web. Where there is integration of services and devices. According
to the biz-community website “web 3 is the third phase in the evolution of the World
Wide Web, based on the idea that the Internet 'understands' the pieces of information it
stores and is able to make logical connections between them”.
>>SUE: You mean the way Amazon suggest other books based on what other people have ordered.
Or Google ads in my Gmail that relate to the context of my messages.
>>ROG: Yes, through Web 3, sites will be able to predict your tastes based on previous purchases
or browsing. >>SUE: So all the links that we click on are
recorded, known by someone or something else. Tell me Roger, will this new Web help us organise
the zillion-billion bytes of data bouncing around cyberspace?
>>ROG: Not so much organise Sue, but harvest and aggregate information from the multitudes
of sources already produced. But do this in a way that is useful to the consumer.
>>SUE: But won't that take the decision making away from the individual. Humanoids are not
totally unintelligent Roger, some of them are actually quite clever. And won't that
mean that the big and new media literate savvy companies will just get bigger and more powerful.
>>ROG: Most humanoids are just getting overwhelmed with choices. Data is there but it just needs
structure and ontologies Sue. >>SUE: Aren't we being herded towards decisions
made by others, like a flock of sheep? How can we trust those that filter information
and make recommendations? In effect you are relieving the human brain of its greatest
power, meta-cognitive thinking. >>ROG: Think of it as relationships between
things, events, ideas and people. And when there is enough relationships the information
becomes contextual. We just need access to all the information to link it together.
>>SUE: So as bits of data are collected here and there, about others, a real picture starts
to be created. But what if the collection of bits, or "data dandruff", as Eben Moglen
from Colombia University calls it; represents personal, private information. Has the owner
of the data got any control? >>ROG: Now you are asking questions I am not
programmed to answer. They are too hypothetical, too critical for me.
>>SUE: Roger, humanoids have relationships which sometimes don't last. How is this breakdown
in relationships reflected in naughts and zeros, that once created are permanent.
>>ROG: Ziiippp, that does not compute. That does not compute. I am not able to think about
things like that. Help, I need Bob. >>SUE: Roger, I can see that the social aspects
of the semantic web are incredibly dynamic and the informal learning gives us so much
independence and extension of ourselves. >>ROG: Now you're getting it.
>>SUE: But Roger I am still concerned that not all humanoids use web technology in the
most positive ways. >>ROG: Yes Sue, it's changing and it’s hard
for anyone to imagine the future. I don't know all the answers either.
>>SUE: So Roger it sounds like I need to continue this debate with Bob; someone that can reason,
and understanding the ethical issues. Someone who can look at these issues from a humanoid
perspective. >>ROG: Over and out, and back to cyberspace.
>>SUE: Roger that. Bye